The present disclosure generally relates to memory interface integrated circuits (ICs). In particular, this disclosure relates to an IC designed to provide elastic expansion of memory interfaces between multiple processor circuits and multiple memory modules.
A hypervisor or virtual machine monitor (VMM) can be computer software, firmware or hardware that is used to create, provision and run virtual machines on a computer system. A computer on which a hypervisor is running at least one virtual machine may be defined as a “host” machine. Each virtual machine may be called a “guest” machine. The hypervisor may present guest machines with a virtual operating platform and may manage the execution of guest operating systems. A hypervisor may allow multiple instances of a variety of operating systems to share virtualized versions of hardware resources such as memory, disk storage space and internet protocol (IP) addresses.
Semiconductor memory devices or chips can be used in computers and other electronic systems to electronically store data. For example, instructions for a processor circuit and data processed by the processor circuit can both be stored in semiconductor memory chips. Such memory chips may be fabricated using a variety of semiconductor technologies. The time to access all data locations within a semiconductor memory chip is generally uniform, which can result in efficient storage and retrieval of data from any data location within the chip. Semiconductor memory chips can be “volatile” or “non-volatile” with regards to data retention during interruption of electrical power supplied to a chip. A volatile memory chip can lose data when the power supplied to the chip is interrupted, and a non-volatile chip is designed to retain data during power supply interruptions.